Unacademy began as co-founder's hobby; start-up is now a unicorn

Unacademy now has 30 million registered users and 350,000 paying subscribers, almost four times as many as in February. The platform has more than 18,000 registered educators.

SoftBank Group Corp. is leading a round of venture investment in India’s education startup Unacademy, boosting its valuation to $1.45 billion as online learning surges during the coronavirus pandemic.

Investors in the $150 million funding include existing backers Facebook Inc. and Sequoia Capital, while SoftBank’s money is coming from Vision Fund 2, a successor to its initial $100 billion fund. The startup’s valuation is tripling from $510 million in February.

Bangalore-based Unacademy has distinguished itself in test preparation classes by recruiting star teachers who help attract ambitious students taking everything from civil service and banking exams to programming languages. As classrooms shut